


OOC

by CatrinaSL



Series: A Simple Device [62]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bodyswap, F/M, SHIP DARCY WITH ALL THE THINGS, Science, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 11:16:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7265947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatrinaSL/pseuds/CatrinaSL
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy went for a leisurely walk the day S.H.I.E.L.D. visited. She had no idea that her Soulmate would be there when she returned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	OOC

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DalekQueen7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DalekQueen7/gifts).



> This fic is for DalekQueen7, whose request for these two to behave OOC in front of the Avengers had me baffled until I realized it was a body swap fic!
> 
> Soulmate AU Reminder: Everyone has a Soulmark, a tattoo of the first words their Soulmate will say to them. Showing someone else your Soulmark is like baring your soul to them, so most people only show their Soulmate or very trusted friends.

Darcy had the morning off the day S.H.I.E.L.D. visited. She got a cup of coffee and walked leisurely through Central Park, pretending she was a student blithely skipping class instead of a lab assistant who wrangled wacky hijinks. 

When she got back, she found Clint and Natasha in a staring standoff with one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. badasses, their glares informing Darcy that the woman had likely done them personal wrong. Steve and a girl with dark hair were eyeing each other in the kitchen, though they were both trying not to look like they were. She headed to the labs, where she saw Tony tinkering with a doohickey, aided by a mountain of a man (S.H.I.E.L.D., she assumed). Jane's lab was similarly occupied, only with more chattering, as two younger scientists orbited happily around Jane. Bruce's lab was the quietest, so she walked in, setting his tea in the usual spot next to his notebook.

"So, you're happy here?" a voice asked. Darcy poked her head around one of Bruce's machines and saw him talking to a S.H.I.E.L.D. Suit.

Bruce was nodding. "I'm doing good things. Probably more good than when I was in India, before..." He sighed. "And I don't have to worry about things like where I'm going to sleep, or earning money for food, so I think this is a good place for me."

"Got your tea, Bruce," Darcy called.

Both men jumped, and it would have been funny except for the flash of light that knocked Darcy on her face.

"Ugh, it's darjeeling," she moaned, her voice sounding odd in her own ears as she pushed herself up off the floor.

"Phil!" The woman who had been losing the staring contest with the super spies rushed into the room and helped Darcy to her feet.

"What happened here?" Natasha wanted to know.

"Darcy—" Bruce began. "Startled me."

"Is everyone okay?" Darcy turned to see Steve and the girl from the kitchen rush in. The girl was looking at her with concern. She nodded, and the girl looked relieved.

"What about you, Doctor Banner?" Darcy heard her own voice say, though she didn't seem to be the one saying it. "Are you all right?"

"I'm—"

"Since when do you call him  _ that _ ?" Clint asked, and for the first time Darcy noticed that she wasn't in the same place she had been. She was on the other side of the lab next to Bruce, nowhere near his tea. 

She swayed, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. badass put her hand on Darcy's shoulder and said, "Are you  _ sure _ everything is fine?"

"Nope, it's not fine," she replied, grasping the woman's arm so that she wouldn't fall over and taking a step to look around the side of the giant machine in between her and... herself. "Bruce body swapped us," she reported, pointing at the person standing in her body between Natasha and Clint.

"Body swapped?" Jane echoed, as she and her mini-scientist entourage joined them. She stared at the two of them. "Darcy?"

Darcy waved with her (hopefully, momentarily) borrowed hand.

"Oh, that's weird," Jane's fanboy observed.

The room erupted around them, everybody’s opinion rushing in, unasked for.

"I... can probably fix this," Bruce assured everyone, turning immediately to his machine.

"The... sooner the better, please?" Darcy's voice said.

"At least I know that outfit was a nice choice," Darcy said, checking herself out as Steve tried to calm both Jane and the agents surrounding them.

"How long will it take?" the S.H.I.E.L.D. badass beside her asked Bruce.

"I am having an amazing hair day," Darcy told the guy stuck inside her body, amused that she was reciting the Words from her own Soulmark.

"Are you guys having a party without us?" Tony asked as he entered the lab using the same door Darcy had. "JARVIS said you were all in here—"

"Tony, Tony, Bruce body swapped me and the S.H.I.E.L.D. guy," Darcy tattled, bouncing up and down a little on her borrowed feet. 

"I'm working on it!" Bruce said, sounding harassed.

"It's Coulson," Darcy's opposite corrected her. "Phil Coulson." A jolt of adrenaline shot through her, followed by a slight ache on the right upper arm of the body that would soon be returned to Coulson. She frowned, rubbing it a little.

She saw Tony eye her, then the guy whose body she was in. "Agent...?" he wondered, pointing between them.

"Everybody out," Bruce ordered.

Steve ushered the girl from the kitchen out the door, plus the Scientists Three, who immediately started bouncing theories around about what could have caused the switch and what they would do to fix it should Bruce’s efforts fail. Darcy could hear Tony telling JARVIS to record everything, “for science.”

“I’ll be right outside,” the S.H.I.E.L.D. badass assured her, shooting a concerned look over at Darcy’s body.

“Thank you, Melinda,” Coulson said with Darcy’s voice.

“Thank you, Melinda,” she echoed, trying to reassure her in the voice she knew best, but only succeeding in making the other woman look even more weirded out.

As soon as the room was cleared, Bruce hit a button to seal it. “I’m sorry,” he said, “I’ve been working on an accidental Other Guy-deterrent.”

Bruce continued explaining, but his voice got kind of far away, like he was talking to them from the other end of a tunnel. It wasn’t the way Darcy usually tuned him out, so she shook her head to clear it.

“...so I figured that a rage-filled lab rat could be more easily contained than the Hulk,” Bruce was saying.

“I think that’s enough,” a voice interrupted, and Darcy recognized it as the one she’d just been using. She looked down at her hands.

“Are we back?” she wondered, though she could see the answer.

“I think the more important question is,” Coulson said, stepping around Bruce’s machine to stand in front of her, “Your Soulmark. Is it right there?”

Darcy blinked; he was pointing at her hip, and he was correct. She replied by poking him in the arm that had stung when he first spoke to her.

He turned back to Bruce. “Doctor Banner, would you mind excusing us?” he asked.

“I… really should get some readings,” Bruce protested, even as he removed the lockdown on the lab.

“And we’ll be happy to help you with that,” Coulson said. “But just for a moment, could you step out?”

Bruce looked confused, but left anyway, shutting the lab door behind him as he was engulfed in the protests, theories, and accusations of the others.

“JARVIS, you can stop recording now,” Darcy said toward the ceiling.

“Of course, Miss Lewis,” the AI replied obligingly.

Darcy lifted her shirt a little and tugged down the top of her skirt. Coulson squinted at the phrase on her skin, then began to smile as he pulled off his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt.

“Is that your writing?” Darcy asked him, replacing her clothes and watching with interest as he shed his.

He nodded, loosening his tie and shrugging out of his shirt. Darcy saw the Words he had said to her on his arm, as though she had scribbled them there minutes before.

She looked up into his eyes. “We’re Soulmates,” he said.

“Isn’t this where you make an inappropriate joke?” Darcy asked. "About... being inside me?"

“If you want,” he replied, pulling his shirt back on. “Or we could save it for later. Banner probably needs to do science to us.”

“Right.” Darcy nodded. “Science first, flirting later.”

Phil smiled. “It wouldn’t hurt to flirt a  _ little _ now,” he said.

Darcy picked up his tie and moved closer, pulling it on over his head. He smoothed out his hair and then began buttoning up his shirt as she tucked the tie under his collar.

“How much flirting is too much?” she asked, when he reached the top button of his shirt and their hands touched.

“I’ll let you know,” he replied, then leaned down to kiss her.

“Shall I alert Doctor Banner that you are ready for him to return?” JARVIS wanted to know.

“Mmm,” was the only reply Darcy could manage.

**Author's Note:**

> [Reblog on tumblr](http://catrinasl.tumblr.com/post/146356312508/ooc)
> 
> Tumblr: [catrinasl](http://catrinasl.tumblr.com)
> 
> Twitter: [@Catrina_SL](http://twitter.com/Catrina_SL)


End file.
